Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Blue Jean Baby

About three years ago I bought a great pair of jeans. While at the store my friend said they reminded her of the early 90's but that didn't scare me away. I loved the high waist, long wide legs and cigarette pockets. However, after I washed them a few times they weren't quite as long and since I am mostly legs that didn't work out so well. Especially since they are so wide, it just looked funny. Now I am not one to throw anything away, and I seriously mean anything. I could go into all my borderline hoarder habits but I probably shouldn't. When it comes to clothes I don't follow the "if you haven't worn it in a year, toss it!" rule. I'll hold onto something for a few years even if I haven't touched it. In fact, a pair of my current favorite jeans I purchased over five years ago, wore them almost daily for about a year and then stashed them in my closet until last summer. I rediscovered them and since the style wasn't exactly current or what I like to wear anymore, I remixed them into a "boyfriend" style jean. I thought about throwing them away many times but I am really glad I didn't. Basically I saved myself some cash because I probably would have bought some boyfriend jeans anyways.

Okay, back to the story at hand. I was determined to make these now high water jeans work. I felt some sort of attachment to them. They were my baby, my early 90's blue jean baby. I would often try them on, seeing if I paired them with just the right shoes they wouldn't look so short. It didn't work. So in my closet they stayed until one day this past summer. Boredom took over (which usually leads to odd projects which always leads to a big mess) and I decided to take out the bottom hemline of the jeans. Makes sense right? Well in theory it works. Reality, not so much. They were now too long, even wider, and had a super frayed edge. Even more unattractive then before. So back into the closet they went.

After last weeks little hem lesson I decided to try my new skill out on my blue jean baby. I figured if I messed them up it wouldn't really affect how frequently they were worn. I still think I need to find a *new* perfect pair of shoes to wear them with in order for the look to be just right (at least that's what I'm telling my husband) but they are definitely better then before.

Before with the messy frayed hem.

After! The perfect length.

Here are the steps I took to get to the final product.

Trimed off all the little strings.

Sewed up the edge so it wouldn't fray.

Notice anything different between the two legs? I sewed the lower one first and forgot to put the foot down so things got a little crazy. I didn't even notice that I didn't put it down till I went to the next leg. I just kept wondering why it was so much more difficult to keep things straight and the speed even than I had remembered... dumb but I learned my lesson!

Next, I pinned them to the new length. The original hemline was at the lighter line. At first I was kind of annoyed that the line was there but I think it adds to the look. After I found the length I wanted, I ironed it to keep it smooth for when I would sew it. I did the basic hem that I learned the day before and was super happy with how it turned out. Now I just have to search for the perfect shoes!